1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally pertains to an electrical connector housing to be mounted in a vehicle e.g., a car (automobile). In particular, the invention aims at providing a scaled-down and lighter electrical connector housing better suited to the increasing demand for applications in small sized vehicles.
2. Description of Background Information
Electrical devices such as relays, fuses and connectors for vehicles are typically housed in an electrical connector housing, and mounted in a vehicle. In the bus bar-containing housings of the prior art, these electrical devices are electrically connected through connecting circuits formed of bus bars.
In such a housing, a plurality of bus bars are laminated with insulator materials, so as to form a bus bar stack. The latter forms the connecting circuits for the electric devices. More particularly, the above connector housing contains a bus bar stack that is composed of a variety of relay-connecting circuits, fuse-connecting circuits and connector-connecting circuits.
Recent years have been marked by the tendency for miniaturizing and lightening vehicles. As a result, the space for mounting electrical connector housings has become limited, and there is now an urgent need to construct smaller and lighter electrical connector housings. However, in the known housings, all connecting circuits are formed into a bus bar stack, which is made by laminating in alternating fashion several layers of bus bars and insulator sheets. Moreover, as required by currently available molding technology, the bus bars require a certain degree of thickness and width. Likewise, the insulator material also requires a certain degree of thickness. It is, however, difficult to miniaturize or lighten the bus bar stack in ways that allow a modification in bus bar wiring patterns or the number of laminates. The miniaturization or lightening of the electrical connector housings has thus encountered a hurdle difficult to get over.
The present invention was made under such a context, and has an object of miniaturizing the size and reducing the weight of an electrical connector housing to be mounted in a vehicle.
To this end, there is provided an electrical connector housing including a first shell carrying several types of electrical device mounts, and a second shell fitted thereto, the electrical connector housing containing a bus bar stack formed by laminating a group of bus bars and an insulator material.
In the above housing, several types of electrical device mounts are wired with corresponding connecting circuits, and the connecting circuits of at least one type of electrical device mounts are formed of a plurality of flexible printed boards each containing conductor patterns. Further, at least part of the plurality of flexible printed boards are superposed to one another and contained in the electrical connector housing.
Preferably, the several types of electrical device mounts include connector mounts, fuse mounts and/or relay mounts.
Preferably yet, the conductor patterns are electrically connected by welding.
Suitably, the conductor patterns allow a current up to 10 amperes to pass.
Typically, each of the conductor patterns has a thickness of about 0.1 mm and a width of about 2 mm.
Suitably, the plurality of flexible printed boards respectively include a plurality of connector pads, which are formed from part of the conductor pattern in a locally concentrated manner and electrically connected by welding, such that the plurality of flexible printed boards can be connected electrically to one another.
According to a first embodiment of the invention, the connecting circuits, which are wired into electrical mounts, are formed of flexible printed boards. This structure renders the connecting circuits smaller and lighter compared to the structure made of a bus bar stack. Further, the connecting circuits may be formed by superposing a flexible printed board on the other, so as to form a multi-layered structure. Such a structure helps to form a compact connecting circuit structure in a limited space.
According to a second embodiment of the invention, the conductor patterns in each flexible printed board are electrically connected to one another by welding. They can thus be connected easily and reliably.
According to a third embodiment, only the connecting circuits which allow to pass a current up to 10 amperes are made of flexible printed boards.